More Beetles 



while it is quite practicable to stand higher 

 or lower on those near the bottom. 



First of all we must discover the regular 

 ration. The majority of insects have none. 

 The larva grows up amidst an indeterminate 

 supply of victuals; it eats as it pleases and as 

 much as it pleases, with no other check than 

 its appetite. Others, those most richly en- 

 dowed in maternal qualities such as the Dung- 

 beetles and the Bees and Wasps, prepare 

 definite rations of preserved food, neither 

 too large nor too small. The Bee stores up 

 in receptacles of clay, cement, resin, cotton 

 or leaf-cuttings just the right amount of 

 honey for a larva's welfare; and, as she 

 knows the sex of the future insects, she puts 

 a little more at the service of the grubs that 

 are to become females and will be slightly 

 larger and a little less at the service of the 

 grubs that are to become males and there- 

 fore will be smaller. In like manner, the 

 Hunting Wasps dole out their game accord- 

 ing to the sex of the nurslings. 



It is now a long time since I did my utmost 

 to upset the mother's wise previsions by tak- 

 ing food from the wealthy grubs to increase 

 the store of the poor. In this way I ob- 

 242 



